About Us
Illustration by @theintrovertbee
Hermanitas Design is a Latina, female-owned, digital design business based out of West New York that focuses on mental health, grief, Latin heritage, and much more. For Iris and Rosalinda Ponce, the owners of Hermanitas Design, their lives serve as the blueprint and inspiration for their work. Life-long Hudson County natives, this sister-duo creates beautiful designs at affordable prices — for just about everyone.
Iris and Rosalinda come from Cuban and Guatemalan parents and have lived in NoHu all their lives. Inspired by their mom as children, Iris and Rosalinda were creatively inclined from the start.
“We grew up in a very creative household where we were constantly watching our mom paint anything she could get her hands-on,” said Rosalinda. “She would paint cartoons on our bedroom walls, she would transform our apartment hallways into Disney scenes and of course, she was a huge Bob Ross fan.”
“She would always tell us that anything is possible and until this day, we believe that.”
Hermanitas Design is a Latina, female-owned, digital design business based out of West New York that focuses on mental health, grief, Latin heritage, and much more. For Iris and Rosalinda Ponce, the owners of Hermanitas Design, their lives serve as the blueprint and inspiration for their work. Life-long Hudson County natives, this sister-duo creates beautiful designs at affordable prices — for just about everyone.
Iris and Rosalinda come from Cuban and Guatemalan parents and have lived in NoHu all their lives. Inspired by their mom as children, Iris and Rosalinda were creatively inclined from the start.
“We grew up in a very creative household where we were constantly watching our mom paint anything she could get her hands-on,” said Rosalinda. “She would paint cartoons on our bedroom walls, she would transform our apartment hallways into Disney scenes and of course, she was a huge Bob Ross fan.”
“She would always tell us that anything is possible and until this day, we believe that.”
When deciding on career paths, Rosa started off in photography, and Iris would manipulate images and create things in a pre-digital era. “We would photograph events and get our friends and family to participate in concept photoshoots.”
Iris made the decision to attend an art school first and Rosa followed shortly after. Iris and Rosa both graduated from New Jersey City University with a BFA in Digital Design and Illustration + a BFA in Graphic Design, respectively. “From there, we learned the endless possibilities to where our art could evolve. It was some time during art school that multiple professors told us we are a dynamic duo and the way we would create things apart and together was something they hadn’t seen before. These same professors would remind us how special this was.”
Hermanitas Design first got started in 2007 when Iris and Rosalinda realized that they could work together by combining their common interests and similarities, while also using their differences to their advantage.
“We have a balanced ying-yang partnership. We work very differently and our different styles allow us to have a broader perspective to bring to the creative table.
Although they are sisters and have common interests, the way they go about solving any design problem is completely the opposite. Iris has this ability to dream up designs in unconventional, over-the-top ways, while Rosa is more methodical in her process and reels in the elaborate ideas to infuse the two styles together into one unique, cohesive design.
“We bounce our ideas off of each other to create things that have an interesting perspective and are attracted to designing things that are often overlooked. We love connecting with people who share similar experiences and advocate for matters that are oftentimes misunderstood. Our work is a reflection of who we are as well as our experiences.”
Independently, Iris is a plant mom that enjoys reading and cleaning. Rosalinda enjoys getting lost in a good video game and has self-proclaimed impeccable trash-talking skills when it comes to online play. Most importantly, perhaps, is their love of coffee, as well as family, superheroes, and baseball!
“Together we like to drink more coffee than we should,” said Rosalinda.
“We enjoy a good trip to the museum, going to Yankee Stadium, nature walks, and picnics. We are huge Marvel fans, we are constantly rewatching the movies. We are movie buffs, we enjoy dissecting films and comparing directors’ styles, and discussing things like cinematography, a movie score – we love a good movie score. We like to binge-watch TV and spend most of our free time with our niece and nephews. Above all, we enjoy each other’s company with our new rescue dog Lolita, and spoil her because she was the best thing to come out of this crazy COVID-19 time.”
This is a feature article on Hermanitas written by Yarleen Hernandez